


Like All Good Plans

by cuddliestcactus



Series: Speak Now [2]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Darcy Lewis, Fluff, Get Together, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 06:33:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3681627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddliestcactus/pseuds/cuddliestcactus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So there they were on the Lemurian Star, doing what was supposed to be a routine hostage rescue, but as aforementioned, good plans go to shit.</p><p>Shit being the legacy he gave everything to being rotten from the core out; shit being this brave, new world losing it’s shiny veneer to expose the same human faults that plagued his time; shit being brothers thought lost to mountainous ravines really being tortured into brainless nightmares.</p><p>Steve’s focus was Bucky. It had to be Bucky. He was Steve’s best friend in the whole world, had been his only family for so much longer than he wanted to think about, and there was no way in hell anything was stopping Steve from getting him back.</p><p>Of course, that’s when Steve finds his soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like All Good Plans

**Author's Note:**

> So I caved and wrote the Shieldshock companion to my Winter Biochemist soulmate story. 
> 
> You definitely don't have to have read the other story for this one to make sense, but my authorly pride will subtly suggest checking it out :)

Steve wasn’t a stupid man.

Despite what Tony might (definitely) say, he was a pretty worldly guy. Fighting in a World War, fighting aliens, living in two periods of history separated by about 70 years will widen your damn horizons and all that.

So when he overheard Thor and Agent Coulson talking about a Dr. Jane Foster being tucked away in Norway safe and sound, his heart skipped a beat and a dent was left on the railing upon which he’d been leaning.

As much time as he’d spent in labs during Project Rebirth, he’d never encountered a ‘Jane’, but, God, had he looked for one.

Anyone with a soulmark mentioning a Jane spending 36 hours in a lab would have looked just as hard, he thought. So yeah, hearing Thor mention a Jane that was an astrophysicist had his full attention.

Until, of course, aliens were raining down from a massive black hole over Manhattan. That kind of thing had to take precedence over his love life.

And then Fury had sent him off to a cabin in the middle of Nowhere, America which Steve had been incredibly grateful for at the time. If he was dealing with just aliens being alive, amongst us, and incredibly powerful, then he probably wouldn’t have needed the adjustment period. He was a pretty adaptable guy.

It wasn’t just that, though. The Battle of Manhattan had been a couple of weeks after his defrosting, and there were wounds that were still so raw. He’d lost everyone he loved; hell, he’d even lost everyone he hated. He’d plain and simple _lost_ everyone and everything.

He wasn’t ashamed of taking a bit to deal with it on his own before braving this new world.

With his head clear and his heart as light as he could get it given the circumstances, he’d planned on finding this Jane Foster. Like all good plans, it went to shit.

There was an outbreak of militants armed with Chitauri weaponry in Nigeria. Then Doom decided Latveria should expand its borders through a war with Hungary using Doombots. Then the President just had to have Captain America at the G20 summit. Then there was an underground group of homegrown terrorists to suss out in the Midwest. And so on and so forth.

The next thing Steve knew, it had been two years and he was infiltrating the Lemurian Star with his sometimes colleague, the Black Widow.

She was only a sometimes colleague because on every mission they’d ever worked, she pestered him about dates like some sort of deranged mother with a vested interest in grandbabies. At first, Steve thought she was trying to bond with him. Maybe super spies in the 21st century were all about healthy, balanced relationships? Weird, but no one seemed to bat an eye at paying through the nose for basic medicine or at babies dressed in bikinis at the beach so what did he know?

The more he turned her down, which he did without fail because his soulmate was out there even if Fury kept him so damn busy that he hadn’t had the chance to run down Thor’s Jane, the more fanatic she became. He ruled out creepy Russian friendship ritual, chalked it up to to Nat amusing herself, and kindly told Fury to limit his time with the meddling redhead.

It was significantly less annoying than Dum Dum’s old habit of chewing on his mustache during missions. The slurping noises still haunted him.

There they were on the Lemurian Star, doing what was supposed to be a routine hostage rescue, but as aforementioned, good plans go to shit.

Shit being the legacy he gave everything to being rotten from the core out; shit being this brave, new world losing it’s shiny veneer to expose the same human faults that plagued his time; shit being brothers thought lost to mountainous ravines really being tortured into brainless nightmares.

Steve’s focus was Bucky. It had to be Bucky. He was Steve’s best friend in the whole world, had been his only family for so much longer than he wanted to think about, and there was no way in hell anything was stopping Steve from getting him back.

Of course, that’s when Steve finds her.

\----------------------------- 

Darcy was totally, definitely, absolutely not throwing a tantrum.

Even though it would be justified if she was.

“Tony,” Darcy focused on the graying hair at his temples in the hopes of avoiding the need for therapy for the rest of her life. Dark Elves had been nothing in comparison. “You are a grown ass man with more money than whole countries so forgive me for not believing you when you say you don’t see the problem with lounging on the helipad _in the nude_.”

“Then I change my stance,” came his haughty reply, “The human body is a natural, beautiful thing, and everyone should consider themselves lucky to have witnessed the majesty that is mine.”

“Just because Pepper isn’t here and Bruce is off saving the world from the outbreak du jour doesn’t mean that you can resume your insane game of chicken with Natasha.”

To Darcy’s horror, her remark had Tony standing up and encroaching on her personal space. Things were jiggling that she never had wanted to see jiggle.

“This isn’t insane! She’s going to lose!” Tony squawked at her.

To hell with it, Darcy thought, and gave up on any attempt at modesty. She finally let her eyes drop to his face and then all the way down his admittedly impressive form given his age and generally poor life decisions. She popped her sunglasses on her head and cocked her head as she perused.

Tony spluttered.

“See? Your whole ‘trying-to-out-cool-the-Black-Widow’ thing is not going end well. If you can’t take me, the inappropriate yet well-meaning assistant, ogling your bits, then exactly how well do you think you’ll do with Natasha Romanoff?”

Tony continued to splutter, but added in some furious eyebrow movements. It wouldn’t have been half as funny if he’d been clothed.

“That’s besides the point anyway, Oh Nude One. There are other people who live here, you know. Well, you definitely should know given that you invited Janie and me here before you even invited Thor, which is much appreciated because Science! Before Shield Bros and all that, but the point is that I do not want to see your junk when I’m just trying to get in some vitamin D before I drag Jane out of the lab. So if you want to keep getting your ass beat by my favorite Avenger, then do it where I can’t see.”

With that, Darcy left. Four years ago, a naked genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist would have made her life. Now, it barely ranked.

Oh, it was still entertaining, but she’d been in the lab with Jane on an Experiments Bender for over a day. Darcy was ready to knock Jane over with a microscope if it meant she got to go pass out in her bed. She’d been trying to budge Jane for the last hour, but it seemed there was no moving the fearsome lady beast that had taken over her best friend.

Finding Tony Stark, splayed out in all of his bare glory, on what was supposed to be her rejuvenating break was the last straw.

Jane was getting out of that lab if it was the last thing Darcy ever did.

Spying a majorly buff dude heading down the hall towards the gyms, she was struck with an ingenious plan.

So committed was she to her new plan that she actually sprinted to catch him. Darcy grabbed a massive bicep and threw all her weight into spinning him about to face her. “Please help me, Jane hasn’t slept in 36 hours and I need someone to just throw her over their shoulders to get her out of the lab, and you look like a man with just the shoulder to hip ratio to help.”

Her mouth had already been running before she got him all the way around so she was a little late on the uptake, belatedly realizing that the man she’d just accosted was Captain America.

The Sentinel of Liberty must not have been used to strange women ambushing him (she found that hard to believe) because his jaw went slack, and he maybe stopped breathing. At least, his ginormous pecks stopped heaving. A little strange, but Darcy was just going to take it as acquiescence and move on. If Steve Rogers didn’t want to go somewhere, she doubted little old her could make him. She drug his fine self down the hall.

He trailed along behind her easily enough with just her hand around his arm as a guide. Darcy peeked over her shoulder at him as they reached the elevators and was about 99% sure he was checking out her ass.

“Eyes up, Captain. Ask a girl to dinner first, geez,” Darcy laughed.

\---------------------------------------- 

‘Jesus Christ, Rogers, get it together’ Steve thought. He had to shake his head to get out of the stupor that his _beautiful_ soulmate had him in like a damn dog. She’d just caught him staring at her in her skinny jeans as if he was a teenager.

Great first impression.

Not for the first time in his life, he wished he could be cool under pressure with dames instead of only when explosions were going off around him. He opened his mouth, hoping that whatever words he marked her with weren’t as terrible as his nerves were making him think they were going to be, only to be interrupted by the ding of the elevator.

She was really strong for such a small thing. Where superpowered aliens and devilish nazis hadn’t budged him, a tug from her hand had him tripping into the small car.

“Woah, big guy,” Darcy tried to steady him, concern coloring her voice.

He caught himself on the wall behind her, his arm long enough that his body wasn’t crushing her, but she was still held snug between himself and the wood paneling.

Her eyes were lovely even when they were nearly crossed trying to focus on his close face.

“Um. I’m really sorry. I just… wasn’t expecting this. Not that I’m disappointed! I’ve honestly been looking for you for so long! I just didn’t expect to find you in Tony’s tower! And you’re so beautiful! Not that it would have mattered if you weren’t! But you are! Fuckin’ hell- shit, don’t curse…”

Steve had never been so embarrassed in his whole life. Not even when he was 13 and Sister Brennan had found his sketch book with the slightly risque drawings. Here she was, his soulmate, and he’d let his dumb mouth run off and she was probably…

Smiling?

That couldn’t be right.

Steve blinked at her, but she was still standing there, chest to chest with him, smiling so wide her glasses were sliding down her nose. He couldn’t help but smile back and reach up to right them. She let go of his bicep to hold his hand to her cheek.

“Hi there, soulmate,” she purred up at him looking like the smuggest kitten. It made Steve want to hit the emergency stop button and curl himself around her. “Darcy Lewis. You know, I thought I was in for a shy, nerdy type. What with my adorkable and rambling soul mark. I hit on so many tiny scientists, you have no idea.”

Steve could imagine her marching up and scaring the wits out of unsuspecting bystanders. The image had him laughing as he angled her face closer and leaned in.

“I’m plenty nerdy. Ask Tony,” he told her as she lifted to her toes.

“Yeah fuckin’ right,” she said as they met in the middle.

They spent their first kiss laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm iamkatebishop on Tumblr, come say hi!


End file.
